Jean Ziegler, the Optimism of Willpower

"A child who dies from hunger is a murdered child." —Jean Ziegler, Vice President of the Advisory Committee of the UN Right Council

In 1964, Jean Ziegler was asked by Che Guevara to fight the "capitalist Monster." Former collaborator of Kofi Annan, professor and writer, Ziegler's books still act as a manifesto to left-wing intelligentsia. At the UN Human Rights Council, he fights against "vulture funds," a new avatar of the "Monster." He goes back to Cuba, in his opinion the mother of all anticapitalist forces. The visit becomes a dialogue between reality and symbolism, confronting his thinking with today's Cuban destiny.

An in-depth documentary on the charismatic and controversial sociologist, professor and best-selling author Jean Ziegler and his endless belief in socialism. With intimate access we witness Ziegler's battle against poverty and for economical independence of developing countries. Ziegler's books have been translated into many languages and distributed worldwide.

"Through the filmmaker's lens, we see Ziegler; his image fracturing into innumerable pieces and losing itself in the complexity of a man with a thousand (hidden) faces ... Wadimoff tells us what Ziegler doesn't want to reveal, using a language, film, known only to him. To take on Jean Ziegler through the medium of words would have been an impossible task, and so it is through film that the director closes in on his subject. Incapable of countering this thrust, Ziegler is conquered, acquiring a hue of humanity that suits him just perfectly." —Cineuropa